Out of the Something Blue
by mmooch
Summary: Wolfram & Hart didn't expect to lose one of their best young lawyers quite like this.


**Out of the Something Blue**

Summary: Wolfram & Hart didn't expect to lose one of their best young lawyers quite like this.

Challenge: CYA (Choose Your Author) over at livejournal. The request I got was this:

_**I'd love an AU Buffy/Lindsey. As for what the AU is... have fun with it! If you can make it be wacky, sure, why not? I'd prefer Angel not be in it, but if it's really minor to make the plot work, that's okay.**_

Timeline: AU _'Something Blue'_ for BtVS and post-_'IWRY'_ for AtS.

A/N: There's a character/word limit for this on livejournal; the whole thing has to fit in one entry.

Warning: non-canon death.

Thanks to my beta: JacobPhoenix.

Special thanks to akat, cloudesongurl and BuffyCharmed for providing the wonderful fanart to serve as inspiration for the story. Check the story out over at www . tthfanfic . org if you want to see them.

Disclaimer: BtVS and AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Wolfram & Hart, LA**

After he finished listening to his superior's initial presentation, Lindsey shook his head slightly in bewilderment. The firm wanted him to bring information to Buffy Summers in Sunnydale. Normally being a messenger wouldn't be an issue, but she was a special case. "Why exactly are we helping the Slayer? Isn't she, you know, on the side of _good_?"

Holland Manners understood his protégé's concern, for it had been his as well. However, Holland had years of experience to temper his reactions; he knew that sometimes you had to choose between enemies. "But she is just one girl – albeit one with friends, unlike most Slayers. This group in Sunnydale is a bigger problem at the moment; one we would like her to take care of for us," he explained. "In order for that to happen, she needs just enough information to cause her to go after them herself. If we're lucky, she'll die in the attempt."

"So what do you want me to tell her?" Lindsey asked, knowing that any further arguments from him would be ignored. Worse, they might hurt his chances for advancement later on. It was better to just agree.

"Here's the packet. Oh, and visit the salon; we thought a more…rugged look would appeal to her more than the preppy lawyer look. If she's attracted to you, it increases the likelihood that you can get her to trust you." Holland grinned widely. "Gotta love those teenage hormones!"

* * *

**Giles' apartment**

**Days later…**

After he re-read the same passage for the fourth time, Giles set the tome down, pulled his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. Apparently researching couldn't take his mind off his missing Slayer. He stood up to stretch his legs while he contemplated Willow's punishment. If anything happened to Buffy because of that sloppy, selfish spell she cast…

A few seconds later, Spike called out from his seat on the couch, "Oi! Watcher! Quit your pacing! It's not gonna bring the Slayer back any sooner and it's distracting me from my show!"

Just like the old stories where saying a name caused someone to appear, Buffy breezed through the door, barely glancing at Giles as she passed. "Hey, Giles!" she called out and kept going to the couch to block Spike's view of the TV. "Hi, Spike," she greeted, then leaned down to slap him in the chest. "Bye, Spike," she quipped as he disintegrated into ash.

Giles just stood there, speechless, as his Slayer grinned madly at the weapon in her hand. What had she done?

"Look, Giles!" Buffy exclaimed excitedly, showing off her new 'toy'. "If I arm the weapon by pushing these two buttons, all I have to do is slap a vampire over the heart with my hand and this sliver of wood will come up from under my sleeve and jab in like a needle. I don't even have to hit them that hard! Isn't it cool? I'm not sure what kind of wood it is, but obviously it's really flexible to curve like that and not hit me."

"Buffy! You killed Spike!" Giles cried out, finally having found his ability to speak. "We needed him to-"

She cut off his rant, "Actually, we didn't. Hubby's already taken care of the Initiative. That's what those soldier guys were called, by the way."

Instead of a happy expression at her news, Giles looked extremely concerned. "So Willow's spell _did_ affect you after all," he concluded. "Don't worry, we'll find a way-"

She cut him off again, "So it was _Willow_ who put the spell on us! That explains a lot. Oh, and you can't interfere with us; I wouldn't even want you to if you could. Now that he's free of Evil Inc., Lindsey is a pretty good guy."

"What do you mean he's free of them?" Giles inquired. "Simply because he married you? I would think they would try to control you through him."

Buffy shot him a grin that usually meant some vampire or demon was about to die; the 'good' equivalent of an 'evil' grin. "They tried, but found out that it's better to leave us alone. All bets would be off if we became a problem for them, but honestly…as long as they stay out of Sunnydale and away from our families, I'm not going to LA to fight them. I have enough trouble keeping up with things here. Angel and his group can worry about those guys."

Intrigued by her comment, Giles asked, "What happened when they tried to use Lindsey?"

"When we got off the plane in Hawaii – where Linds was taking me for a quick honeymoon – this sorcerer guy tried to cast a spell on Linds while the vamps with him came after me. The magick rebounded, killing the sorcerer and the vamps. That happened a couple more times in different ways, but all ending with the people/beings involved getting toasted. Guess that what the Mage dude meant by 'no magick tearing us asunder' during the soul-binding spell. Anyway, they decided not to try anymore."

Now the Watcher was truly alarmed. "Soul-binding spell?"

Buffy just shrugged. "Linds was worried after we did the wedding thing with a justice of the peace that either you guys or Wolfram & Hart would make us get an annulment, so we went to this demon reader-slash-karaoke singer in LA, who directed us to somebody who could bind our souls…if he wanted to. Apparently it's kinda a big deal to do the ritual he did for us; only happens like once a century or so, and our souls have to be compatible or something. Now nothing can tear us apart except for death, and if that happens, whoever caused our deaths will die too."

She got a thoughtful look on her face and wondered aloud, "Wonder what that would mean if it was because of natural causes…Oh, or an accident! I hope that there's a loophole for accidents!"

"Buffy! Focus!" Giles demanded, terribly worried about what this would mean for her. "How do you know this isn't a setup by his employers?"

"Well, apart from those people dying when they tried to interfere, I guess it's because the Mage who did the ritual was the same one who helped us trick Faith into believing she freed Angelus last spring. And he said to tell you that _'there is no favor owed for this'_. If this ritual is done, there cannot be strings attached by anyone."

When he still looked concerned, Buffy tried to assure him, "Don't worry…part of the deal with soul-bindings is that we can't betray or intentionally hurt each other. Even accidentally hurting each other has limits. Like he can't get drunk and spill secrets to a bad guy about my weaknesses," she explained. "He can forget my birthday or our anniversary, though, so I'll have to show him why that's a bad idea."

Deciding to set that aside for the moment until he could research it further, Giles went back to his first concern, "What about the soldiers?"

Before she could answer, there was a knock at the door. When Buffy answered, the young lawyer who first appeared on Giles' doorstep a few days ago was there again, but sporting a clean-cut appearance instead of the scruffy one he had previously.

"Hello, darlin'," he drawled as he leaned down to kiss his bride.

"Hey, sweetie," Buffy replied after the kiss went too long and Giles had to cough several times to remind them they weren't alone. "How'd it go?"

"Mr. Giles," Lindsey acknowledged the older man's presence with a handshake. Then he answered Buffy's question, "The secret base is emptied. The soldiers' loyalty only lasted until they found out that demons weren't the only things being experimented on by their bosses."

"Dear lord! Even their own people?" Giles exclaimed.

Lindsey nodded, wrapping his arm around Buffy and holding her tight to his side. The pair sat down in one of Giles' chairs together, looking entirely too cute for being enemies just days before. "They _really_ wanted super soldiers, and didn't care what they had to do to get them. The scientists involved in the experiments were arrested and on their way to Leavenworth. The college will have a few less professors tomorrow and maybe even several dozen students as well."

"Hmm, wonder if I know any of them," Buffy mused.

"I have a list of names if you're really interested," Lindsey offered.

"Perhaps later," Giles answered for Buffy. "First I'd like to know why Buffy staked Spike when she came in."

"With the Initiative taken care of, why keep him around? After all the crap he's put us through, Lindsey thought I'd enjoy getting rid of him as a wedding present." She looked at her husband with a bright smile and said, "He was right, too. I loved it!"

"But he was harmless," Giles protested. "Who knows what kind of information we could have gotten from him-"

This time it was Lindsey who interrupted him, "First of all, he was hardly 'harmless'. Simply because he wasn't able to physically act on his evil impulses himself doesn't mean that he couldn't hurt you in other ways. Believe me; some of the most dangerous creatures I dealt with at Wolfram & Hart never raised a finger or tentacle against another being. Mind games can sometimes cause more damage than a blow to the body. Secondly, what's to say that you could trust anything Spike told you?"

"Besides…" Buffy interjected, "Now you don't have to put up with his whining all the time."

That was the clincher for Giles. It was his turn to grin madly at the thought he no longer had to deal with the bleached vampire. "That's true!" he exclaimed giddily, then sobered as he looked at the happy couple curled up in the chair next to him. "That doesn't mean that I trust you just yet. I will need to speak to the Mage and verify your story first. Even then, if I find out you've hurt Buffy, I'll feed you to the Hellmouth, one piece at a time," he growled out menacingly.

Lindsey blinked hard at the warning. This guy could put some of his former superiors to shame when it came to intimidation. They'd better make sure Giles never went evil or there'd be big trouble. "I'll keep that in mind," he replied seriously. Somehow he knew that while Buffy could be flippant with the man, it wasn't a good idea if he tried – at least until there was some trust between them.

"Well, now that you've gotten one parental figure's death threat, let's go talk to my mother and explain how a friend's spell caused us to get married," Buffy quipped, pulling her hubby up from the chair.

Giles just chuckled at the young man's almost fearful expression. This could be fun to watch…if he could convince Buffy to let him tag along.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the abruptness of the story, but I had a death in the family and had to rush to get this out like I had promised before leaving for the funeral.


End file.
